Work out how many similar retainers can fit into your monthly schedule without planning every available hour. Start with total work capacity, subtract nonbillable time, protect a buffer for delays and sales work, and divide the usable hours by the time required per client. The result shows full retainers, unused capacity, and utilization of the buffered plan.
The main result is the largest whole number of equal-sized retainers that fits inside the protected capacity.
Actual retainers rarely consume identical hours; review time tracking and model heavy-demand months separately.
From 160 monthly hours, subtract 40 nonbillable hours and protect a 15% buffer, leaving 102 hours. At 25 hours each, capacity is 4 full retainers with 2 hours remaining.
A partial capacity allocation cannot support another full retainer at the entered service level.
It is applied after nonbillable hours are removed, preventing those hours from being protected twice.
Include administration, marketing, finance, learning, and other work not assigned to client retainers.
Yes, provided every hour input refers to the same weekly period.
Use a weighted average for rough planning or model each client individually in a separate capacity schedule.
| Input | Meaning | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly work capacity | User-entered planning assumption | hours |
| Nonbillable hours | User-entered planning assumption | hours |
| Capacity buffer | User-entered planning assumption | % |
| Hours required per retainer | User-entered planning assumption | hours |